Filipino dies from rabies after being bitten in Philippines

DEADLY IMPORT:：The man’s death was the first imported rabies fatality in Taiwan since 2002. There have been no domestic cases reported since 1959

Staff writer, with CNA

Mon, May 27, 2013 - Page 3

A worker from the Philippines who contracted rabies in his home country died in a hospital in Pingtung County yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said.

CDC Deputy Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said that the centers were notified of the death earlier in the day by the Pingtung hospital, which had been treating the 31-year-old worker in an intensive care ward.

The worker was bitten by a dog in the Philippines on March 10 before arriving in Taiwan on April 7 to take a factory job, the CDC said.

He went to see a doctor on May 4 after he started to feel ill and his health deteriorated quickly. Tests confirmed he was infected with the rabies virus on May 11.

The man’s body has been cremated as required by law, since rabies is a class-one notifiable disease and is almost 100 percent fatal, Chou said.

The case was this year’s first imported incident of rabies in Taiwan, which has reported no domestic human cases since 1959 and no domestic animal cases since 1961.

The nation reported only one imported rabies case last year and the most recent one before that was in 2002.

Patients in both of the previous cases had contracted the disease in China, the CDC’s Web site said.